Divided Sovereignty

International Institutions and the Limits of State Authority

Carmen Pavel

Provides an explanation of why individuals should participate in the creation of coercive international institutions and why states should obey them, given that the latter have primary responsibility for the protection of individual rights and may regard such institutions as dangerous, unjustified impositions that must be resisted

Argues that normative models of institutions cannot be advanced responsibly without an empirical understanding of how institutions actually perform their functions

Claims that regulative principles of justice should be grounded in institutional facts

Aims to motivate political philosophers to rethink the mental maps that connect their views about justice with specific institutional models

Divided Sovereignty

International Institutions and the Limits of State Authority

Carmen Pavel

Description

The question of how to constrain states that commit severe abuses against their own citizens is as persistent as it is vexing. States are imperfect political forms that in theory possess both a monopoly on coercive power and final jurisdictional authority over their territory. These twin elements of sovereignty and authority can be used by state leaders and political representatives in ways that stray significantly from the interests of citizens. In the most extreme cases, when citizens become inconvenient obstacles in the pursuit of the self-serving ambitions of their leaders, state power turns against them. Genocide, torture, displacement, and rape are often the means of choice by which the inconvenient are made to suffer or vanish.

In DividedSovereignty, Carmen Pavel explores new institutional solutions to this abiding problem. She argues that coercive international institutions can stop these abuses and act as an insurance scheme against the possibility of states failing to fulfill their most basic sovereign responsibilities. She thus challenges the longstanding assumption that collective grants of authority from the citizens of a state should be made exclusively for institutions within the borders of that state. Despite worries that international institutions such as the International Criminal Court could undermine domestic democratic control, citizens can divide sovereign authority between state and international institutions consistent with their right of democratic self-governance. Pavel defends universal, principled limits on state authority based on jus cogens norms, a special category of norms in international law that prohibit violations of basic human rights. Against skeptics, she argues that many of the challenges of building an additional layer of institutions can be met if we pay attention to the conditions of institutional success, which require experimentation with different institutional forms, limitations on the scope of authority for coercive international institutions, and an appreciation of the limits of existing knowledge on institutional design.

Thoughtfully conceived and forcefully argued, Divided Sovereignty will challenge what we think we know about the relationship between international institutions and the pursuit of the fundamental requirements of justice.

Divided Sovereignty

International Institutions and the Limits of State Authority

Carmen Pavel

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. Why Divided Sovereignty?2. Method and Justification3. Outline of the Book Chapter 1 Sovereignty, the Social Contract, and the Incompleteness of the State System 1. The Institutions of the Social Contract2. On Sovereignty and Delegation of Authority 3. Problems of Institutional Design 4. Conceptual and practical Hurdles to Divided Sovereignty 5. Conclusion Chapter 2 Divided Sovereignty: the Principal-Agent Model 1. Sovereignty Limiting Norms and their Current Effects 2. Divided Sovereignty: The Principal-Agent Model 2.1 The Origins of the Model2.2 The Principle-Agent Model for International Institutions 2.3 Delegation2.4 The Role of Consent 3. Agency Costs at the International Level 4. Why Use Principal-Agent Theory? 5. ConclusionChapter 3 Domestic and International Implications: Slavery, Genocide and Civil War1. The Scope and Limits of International Authority 2. Constitutional Interpretation and Change3. Slavery 4. Genocide 5. Civil Wars and Failed States 6. Conclusion Chapter 4 Theories and Institutional Facts 1. One Step Theorizing: Cosmopolitan Justice 2. Two Step Theorizing: The Case of Humanitarian Intervention 3. Objections 4. Conclusion Chapter 5 Romanticizing Institutions 1. Cosmopolitan Global Democracy 2. Rule of Law Experiments 3. Rule of Law for Global Democracy 4. Institutional Assumptions and Bureaucratic Pathologies5. Conclusion Chapter 6 Institutional Pluralism 1. Institutions in International Criminal Law2. Fragmentation and Conflict 3. The Benefits of a Pluralist System 4. Complex Social Orders 5. A Hobbesian Challenge 6. ConclusionChapter 7 The Possibility of Rule-Governed Behavior in International Politics1. Cooperation under Anarchy 2. Assumptions and Implications of International Relations Theorizing 3. Self-Preservation as the Dominant State Preference 4. The Possibility of a Rule-Governed Order Conclusion

Divided Sovereignty

International Institutions and the Limits of State Authority

Carmen Pavel

Author Information

Carmen E. Pavel is a political theorist who specializes in contemporary political philosophy and the history of political thought. Her interests include liberal theory and contemporary challenges to it, ethics and public policy, international justice, the authority of international institutions, and environmental ethics. She is an Associate Professor and the Associate Director of the Center for the Philosophy of Freedom at University of Arizona.

Divided Sovereignty

International Institutions and the Limits of State Authority

Carmen Pavel

Reviews and Awards

"Divided Sovereignty is a lucid piece of work that makes a coherent argument in favor of a pluralist conception of multilateral institutions, which would serve as the agents of peoples and, as a last result, protect peoples against fundamental violations of human rights." --Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University

"Pavel provides a systematic and thoughtful account of the reasons why coercive international institutions are needed, the nature of their authority, and why individuals should support them and states should comply with their rules. Her book is a valuable contribution to the nascent shift in theorizing about global justice toward taking institutions seriously." --Allen Buchanan, Duke University

"Divided Sovereignty makes a compelling case for supplementing sovereign states with coercive international institutions. Though it shares a concern for global justice, the book presents a powerful alternative to the institutional visions typically outlined by cosmopolitans. By prioritizing good institutional design over abstract morality, and defending the importance of collective self-determination, Pavel reorients recent debates. This is an original and important book." --Anna Stilz, Princeton University

Divided Sovereignty

International Institutions and the Limits of State Authority

Carmen Pavel

From Our Blog

Late last year, North Korea grabbed headlines after government-sponsored hackers infiltrated Sony and exposed the private correspondence of its executives. The more significant news that many may have missed, however, was the symbolic and long overdue UN resolution condemning the crimes against humanity North Korean committed against its own people.